THE MUSIC
It all started with a verse
Interview by Short Kut
Short Kut: Where did you come up with the idea,“ Life is Pricele $$?” Pastor Stokes:“ Life is Pricele $$” originally started with a verse I wrote for a song called“ Random Violence” but the song was never recorded. I put the verse away and focused more on myself. Short Kut: What was the verse about? Pastor Stokes: The verse was about characters the Lord had blessed me with but at the time I wrote it I could not under-stand the language of God. I was trying to change but Satan wanted me to continue on my selfish path and this was the most unselfish rap I had ever written. It talked about real problems other people had, and most of my raps where only about me, myself, and I. The characters seem to come alive and I needed to write more about them because the verse wasn’ t telling the whole story. Short Kut: Why do the song now? Pastor Stokes: I left it alone for some years and even stopped rapping for three years. God was chasing after me, changing my life and with this change came growth. I buried myself in the Word and started to practice my faith. I stopped performing live but God told me to still write. So I did, I finished that verse and turn it into a song. From the song came more songs, I couldn’ t stop writing. I wrote ten songs in one week, all about these characters. Then the rhyming got complicated so God spoke through my wife 6 and she told me to use my other talents.
Short Kut: Sounds like your wife played a big role in this as well. What other talents was she referring to? Pastor Stokes: At the time I got upset and told her I had no other talents but rap. She prayed for me and my eyes where open to all the other abilities God blessed me with. I created a story and the characters had their own stories so it became a book then a series of books. One day my pastor put our church on a vision fast, that meant no television for awhile. Whoa, me not watching TV this was going to be hard. Short Kut: No T. V.? Wow. Must have been challenging. Tell me more. Pastor Stokes: Well, once that happen my mind was forced to be creative and I wrote a PLAY and a MOVIE. I had great challenges putting this project together but I wouldn’ t change the experience for anything. Short Kut: If you could sum up the expereince from doing this product, what would you say? Pastor Stokes: It changed my life so with the blessing of God and my prayers hopefully it should do the same for you. God bless you all Amen.
Preview edition | Page 8